


every face along the boulevard is a dreamer just like you

by palaces_outofparagraphs



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Nostalgia, it is terrible and the tenses are a mess. i did not proofread it. however: here you go, this is the first piece of writing i could physically muster since luke perry died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 15:21:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18346349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palaces_outofparagraphs/pseuds/palaces_outofparagraphs
Summary: in her dreams, they are young again.





	every face along the boulevard is a dreamer just like you

_ every face along the boulevard is a dreamer just like you _

in her dreams, they are young again.

they waltz through the halls of riverdale high school, when it is dark and everyone else hsa gone home. they didn’t hang in the same circles so much when they were kids, not until they became FredAndMary; in the olden days, fred was firmly fp’s, firmly alice’s; and mary, she was - she was her own. mary didn’t talk to the southside serpents, even those who didn’t dress like them anymore. mary didn’t talk to boys who looked like they belonged to prep school, boys with sparkling eyes who liked getting in trouble, boys who spent longer on her their hair than she did. mary didn’t talk to much of anyone, until she did. until she fell for fred hook, line, and sinker, and dropped with the sheer childish joy she never allowed herself to experience otherwise, into his entire life.

they would stay late after school, until the lights dimmed and there was no one around but an errant janitor with headphones on on the other side of the building. they would stay late, because fred didn’t want to go home to an empty house, his mother not coming home from the late shift at the factory until well into the night, his father, gone, oscar, gone. fred didn’t say a word about it, he didn’t have to, just like mary never had to talk about why she didn’t want to go to her own home.

_ no one in riverdale likes their parents, do they, _ she said once, they were passing a can of cherry coke between them, sitting cross legged against the wall of the science wing. across from them was an open classroom, and she could see the glow of the sunset through the open window. the school was semi dark. she knew she should be getting home.

he takes a sip of cherry coke and hands it back to her and she swears she can taste his laugh as she presses her lips to the can. there is no evidence of laughter in his face now, though. she had made her statement knowing full well fred was the exception to the rule. knowing she could say it and he wouldn’t even mind.

fred never minded.

_ i do,  _ he said, no past tense. he would always love his dad.  _ but not many other people do.  _

_ we’ll be different,  _ she said.  _ if we ever have kids. _

_ we will, _ he said.

they were, she thinks, anyway. she thinks what might have gone wrong with them was that even when fred was young and beautiful, he had been old since he’d lost his father. his heart had aged and so when he had grown into it, it suited him. he was a good dad from the moment archie exited the womb. the best dad. he was ready for such a life, without question: a life of wisdom and parenthood, PTA meetings and breakfast on the table.

and it wasn’t that she  _ wasn’t ready.  _ it’s just, she never expected to grow old. 

fred deserved someone good at being old. she never was. she spent all her time in a state of mild surprise, that she was still herself, in this body, her hair fading, her face lined with wrinkles.

_ you’re beautiful, _ he said, earnest as he was when he was sixteen, still sipping on a cherry coke.  _ you get more beautiful every day, mary. _

she took the cherry coke from him. it tasted flat when she took a sip.  _ i know,  _ she said, but she didn’t really. it wasn’t about being beautiful. it was that she didn’t feel like herself anymore.

she took the chicago job without intending not to come back but once she was gone, she knew to fred, she would be gone forever. it wasn’t that fred wasn’t forgiving, it was that he would never be able to understand why anyone could leave riverdale. it wasn’t that fred wouldn’t take her back, it was that he deserved better, deserved more, 

or at least, that was what she told herself. that’s what she tells herself, and in her dreams, they are young again, and she wakes up aching for him, aching for youth, aching for who they used to be.

**Author's Note:**

> anyone else miss luke perry so much it feels like their heart's been ripped out of their chest?


End file.
